好的企业是最好的艺术

John Axford, director of Woolley & Wallis, said: "There are a number of very wealthy buyers who are trying to form their own collections and/or their own museums in China. A number of the Chinese super-rich are spending very large sums on the most prestigious works of art. We've been lucky enough to sell some of these."Although Sotheby's, Christie's and Bonhams are also achieving record prices thanks to the Chinese yuan, the regional auction houses are giving London a run for its money.Among its numerous multimillion-pound Chinese sales, Woolley & Wallis sold a mid-18th-century Qianlong carved jade water buffalo for £4.2m in 2009, then a UK record for an object sold outside London and the most expensive piece of jade ever sold in the world. In November it sold a Qianlong imperial jade deer for £3.8m.Such is the demand from Chinese collectors that rhino-horn libation cups – intricately carved ceremonial drinking vessels that once sold for a few hundred pounds – are changing hands for tens of thousands.

-The Guardian
January 16 2011